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Watson Farley Set for Spain Launch With Hire of Lovells Team
Legal Week
November 12, 2009
Madrid, Spain
Watson Farley & Williams is set to enter the Spanish market with the hire of a Lovells team in Madrid.
The firm has recruited banking and finance partner Joaquin Sales and energy-focused corporate counsel Maria Pilar Garcia to head up the new Madrid office. Both join as partners and bring along with them three associates from Lovells.
The new Madrid base is Watson Farley's 12th office, alongside London, New York, Paris, Hamburg, Munich, Rome, Milan, Athens, Piraeus, Singapore and Bangkok.
Watson Farley managing partner Michael Greville said: "For some time we have appreciated that there is an obvious gap in our European network, with Spain being the fourth-largest economy in Europe and Madrid a major center in the renewable energy sector.
"With the level of work in the renewable energy sector across all of our offices in Europe on the rise, coupled with the need for a corporate finance platform in Spain, the opportunities which we are missing by not having a Spanish practice made this move a strategic imperative."
After the departure of Sales, who is expected to leave Lovells in the next couple of weeks, Lovells' Madrid office will have just two partners in its banking, energy and infrastructure practice group. In total, Lovells has around 95 lawyers in Madrid, including 13 partners.
Commenting on the imminent departure, Lovells Madrid managing partner Jose Maria Balana said: "We respect Joaquin's decision to embark on this venture and we wish him all the best going forward. It is an amicable separation."
Watson Farley is the second U.K. firm to launch in Spain this year after Herbert Smith opened a Madrid office in May with the hire of a Linklaters team.
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